In terms of customer reviews and companies who subscribe to the philosophy of “fake it until you make it”, there is a huge potential for consumers to fall prey to fake reviews and made up testimonials.

How does someone like you or I make sure that the reviews we’re reading are for real? Well, after I’ve began my initial investigation of reading testimonials on a company’s site, or on Yelp, Amazon, etc., I make sure to look at sites and networks that focus on giving real users a platform to be heard.

By using strict methods of verifying whether or not an actual human being is behind the avatar, I’ve found that social sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn make excellent resources for real-time feedback on companies I’m considering doing business with.

As a blogger and social media manager for one or more companies myself, I’ve picked up a trick or two along the way that helps place authentic feedback and testimonials at the top of web and social network search engines, most recently adopting a custom search query on Twitter that has proven invaluable.